Posts for Tag:
gplay

Many moons ago, I started an online video game rental service. It was one of the first in the industry and for a brief time flirted as the #1 company in the market. It rose, it fell, but that's another story.

During the very early days of my start-up, we used to make GameStop runs to buy our inventory because it was much cheaper than buying new games at wholesale prices. The fact that we got 10% off used games by using the GameStop Rewards card made it a no brainer. Even after I exited the video game business, I still bought most of my games from GameStop out of some weird sense of nostalgia and loyalty. Price-wise they are never the cheapest and you do get shafted when you sell back games but I get a certain sense of joy when walking into the store to peruse the game titles and chat with the employees.

I'm not so sure the sordid news regarding GameStop employees removing items from game packs changes my perception that much of the company. No one ever said GameStop was the bastion of retail purity plus this is more a corporate directive than a "theft/stealing" issue. Still, it's not a positive and given that places like Amazon gets you the same exact game at a slightly cheaper price, no tax and free shipping, it may make me think twice about where I buy from moving forward.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I had a little start-up that was doing Netflix style delivery but for video games. Vikas Jha, currently CEO and founder of Teracent, was kind enough to join our board of advisors. He had no obligation to do so and was just interested in helping out a fellow entrepreneur. Fast forward to today and I'm ecstatic to hear that Google has bought Teracent. Hope you made out well Vikas!